| On a horse named Jolie |
[18 Mar 2009|02:57pm] |
There are days when the initial sip of just-cooled coffee is the most wondrous sensation, creating a moment to grasp amid its escape with the net of a settling sigh.
Today was such a day.
Today is such a day.
(and this just because it pleases me)
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| Salary perspectives… |
[04 Feb 2009|10:20am] |
I was never the hugest Obama fan, voting instead as is so often the case for the lesser of two unfortunate choices (but what do I know, I was a John Edwards fan?).
I’m happy that he admitted his error with Tom Daschle's nomination, but I’d be happier if he forced Timothy Geithner to step down. These folks were meant to be the Febreeze for the white house and are instead the same ole stank.
What I find interesting is this limitation of a salary cap of $500,000 for executives of firms who oversee companies receiving government bail-out funds. First, I’m sure that there are ways to skirt this issue since oftentimes the compensation for such employees is in non-salary-based perks and also stock plans, etc. But beyond that, did you know there is an NIH mandated cap for scientist who do research grants for the government-sponsored projects, the main source of funding for most labs? On 1/1/09 this salary cap for people attempting to cure cancer, solve paralysis, determine the functions of our very biological clocks, rose from $191,300 to $196,700. These are not PI’s employed by the government, but rather world leaders in science employed (like the bankers) by private industry, but simply supplemented via grants from taxpayers that, by the way, require incredible scrutiny and competition to even receive the funding.
Somehow we are to be happy that Wall Street folks with $18k non-functioning ancient oriental toilets as decoration in their remodeled offices are going to be limited to $500,000 while considering it equitable that the persons who might well save your breasts from mutant DNA are limited to $196,700/year (and glad to get it).
Hmmmm. So much for change.
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| Day 3447 |
[21 Oct 2008|04:16pm] |
It is the purpose of indention, the nature of the scratch into the wall, to be merely something to do.
There is the constancy of contemplation, even as the fingernail digs daily, to wonder what is the point.
And now this cushion of collected dust beneath the rows of slashed days pillowing the sleep birthing muffled echoes of exhausted sighs seeking another dawn for the sake of dawn.
Dreams of redundant etches masquerading as intention, as purpose.
My kingdom for utility.
My horse for a reason to ride.
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| Reply from Bart Gordon, House of Representatives. |
[26 Sep 2008|10:55am] |
Dear Robert,
Thank you for sharing your opposition to the plan allowing the Treasury Department to buy distressed mortgage-related assets. Hearing from you helps me better represent Middle Tennessee.
I share your outrage at the actions that caused this crisis, and at any proposal looking to provide a handout to the very people who were behind this mess in the first place. The individuals and companies at the root of this problem took risks that never should have been permitted. The regulators that exercise oversight over the financial markets have failed taxpayers miserably, and left Congress with a choice of allowing the American economy to collapse, or agreeing to let the Federal Government intervene in the private sector at an unprecedented level.
The plan the Administration sent to Congress is unacceptable. I will not support a blank check that carries with it no oversight, no relief for middle class taxpayers who were the unintended victims of this collapse, and no real promise that this is an investment rather than a gift. The risky behavior of those who preyed on the subprime market should not be rewarded. I want to know that any investment made is staying here in America and not lining the pockets of investors in China.
Sincerely -Stay in touch,
BART GORDON
Member of Congress
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| How I spent my “lunch” today: |
[25 Sep 2008|03:14pm] |
I went onto the Senate website (Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker):
“Contact Info for your senator via their webpage”: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
And the House of Representatives website (Bart Gordon):
“Contact Info for your congressperson via their webpage”:
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
And uploaded on each of their “Contact” pages of their individual websites the following message
Subject: Vote NO to Financial Bailout
As a register voter, I want to clarify in every way possible to you that my personal decision is that you should vote NO to this Financial Bailout. I do not agree with this solution in any of its forms and do not want my tax dollars used for this purpose.
Please do not assume I am an idiot in financial or economic matters and that you need to make a more informed decision on my behalf that I’m somehow not able to understand.
I hold a degree as an Accountant and my job is quite specifically in this field. I understand completely the ramifications of our nation’s current economic situation and with that full knowledge, as my representative, I want you to know my wish is for you to vote NO.
I find it abhorrent that this legislation is being railroaded through so quickly that you are not being given an adequate opportunity to access the will of the people. Even today I am so busy with my own employment obligations that I have barely found time to send you this letter before hearing on the news that Congress is already wanting to push this forward. I find this unfair and a seeming attempt to bypass the very nature of interactive Democracy.
It might further interest you to note that I have not talked to a single citizen in my family or my workplace who wants you to vote in favor of this bill. Unanimously our wish is for you NOT TO APPROVE this legislation under any circumstances and not with any variations or improvements.
NO BAILOUT is acceptable to myself or my circle of friends, family, or co-workers.
You should understand that I feel strongly enough about this being a horrible decision that the manner in which you cast your vote on this legislation will play a very large role in my decision on any future elections involving your candidacy.
Sincerely,
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| Yen and such... |
[24 Sep 2008|10:22am] |
What I adore is the consistent, if inaccurate presentation.
"The government is going to bail out Wall Street."
See, one of the things required if you are the bailing-out person is that you actually have money. Or at least assets to sign over to the bail bondsperson.
What the press, and the Feds should be saying is, "China is going to bail out Wall Street."
Which brings up the whole humor thing about the concern over other countries becoming new world powers or developing nuclear bombs and such.
China will not need invade the U.S.
They will simply foreclose.
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| Yes, we can |
[17 Sep 2008|04:55pm] |
~~~~~~~~~~~ and this: ~~~~~~~~~~
This is Your Nation on White Privilege
By Tim Wise
For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.
White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain…
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
-By Tim Wise
Source: http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege
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| And the kettle pens, “Black like me, too” |
[16 Sep 2008|11:28am] |
Some realities eliminate the need for creative thinking by comedians.
Like, a decent joke to emphasis the horrific implications of Abu Ghraib might be to suggest that even Hitler said, “Dude, that’s extreme.”
So, pundits may need walk the unemployment line when, of all people, Karl Rove says McCain has reached an uncomfortable level of blatant lying in his ads.
I mean, really, Karl Fucking Rove calls you overboard on your falsehoods.
What the Fuck!?!?!?
This just cracked me up:
UPDATE: Sure enough, the Obama campaign weighs in... gleefully.
"In case anyone was still wondering whether John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history, today Karl Rove - the man who held the previous record - said McCain's ads have gone too far," said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.
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| Déjà vu’ness |
[12 Sep 2008|01:28pm] |
How wrong is it that on the radio there is an advertisement for a Back-To-School Sale going on at Déjà vu ?
Apparently lap dances are only $15 (it’s been years since I went, but I think they were like $20 or $25 back in the day).
And all of the dancers will be dressed in school uniforms.
It just seems inappropriate in the extreme.
I wish I could go…
~~~~~~~~
From: Jeana
To: Robert
thank you for sending this Rob!
here's what a response I got when I indiscriminately sent it to women I know (both Rep and dems)!
I am not a feminist and do not agree with this radical anti truth article. It misconstrues the truth and actuality of Sarah Palin’s stance on certain issues for our country vs. private beliefs. That is what is wrong with certain groups and media today. Thank you for sending it, but I would rather not receive articles such as these.
This just makes me so mad! Not even wanting to entertain the thought of other ideas or of opening it up for dialogue! This is exactly the mentality we'll be fighting against!
-Jeana
~~~~~~
From: Robert
To: Jeana
I’ve posted these articles on my office door (replacing the comic strips that were there) in a feeble attempt to sway people.
I’ve been shocked at how many people, particularly women, are infatuated with Sarah Palin. Strongly, strongly for her. I was hoping you might be able to pass these around because I am under an apparently false belief that women might be swayed by leaders like Ensler and Steinem.
Although I typically follow Linus from Peanuts advice and know there are three things to never discuss (Religion, Politics, and the Great Pumpkin), I found myself arguing just now in the hallway with my boss, with Ray on my side of the fence equally frustrated with her, because she simply doesn't care about all the "facts" we kept explaining about Palin, she says she simply likes her no-nonsense approach to life and that's why she's voting for McCain/Palin.
I am truly afraid that McCain appears he will win this thing.
Here’s another thing from Matt Damon on YouTube if you have time to listen and watch:
Sigh……
-Robert
~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Jeana
To: Robert
Cc: Caitlin (Jeana's hot 18-yr-old daughter)
yep, it's too scary to think about.
I'll send on this Damon link too, just to piss my friends off.
Jeana
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| …On Sarah Palin (ditto)… |
[11 Sep 2008|06:28pm] |
.
Palin: wrong woman, wrong message
Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
by Gloria Steinem
Author, feminist organizer and co-founder of the Women's Media Center
She supported Hillary Clinton and is now supporting Barack Obama
Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.
But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.
Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."
This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can't do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn't say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden's 37 years' experience.
Palin has been honest about what she doesn't know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, "I still can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?" When asked about Iraq, she said, "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq."
She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she's won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain's campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax. Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn't know it's about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them. Or perhaps McCain is following the Bush administration habit, as in the Justice Department, of putting a job candidate's views on "God, guns and gays" ahead of competence. The difference is that McCain is filling a job one 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.
So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.
Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
I don't doubt her sincerity. As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she doesn't just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She doesn't just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning power plant in her own small town. She doesn't just echo McCain's pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.
So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, "women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership," so he may be voting for Palin's husband.
Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest.
Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.
And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.
This could be huge.
Source: Los Angeles Times ~
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,7541303.story
|
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| …On Sarah Palin |
[11 Sep 2008|04:43pm] |
Drill, Drill, Drill
by Eve Ensler
(author of The Vagina Monologues)
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.
Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."
Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.
She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.
Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.
Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.
I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.
Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/drill-drill-drill_b_124829.html
copy/paste (a.k.a. stolen) from a post by Jamelle
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| Apropos Memorials, annually |
[11 Sep 2008|03:25pm] |
Likely God painted the morning this way just for me. After exiting 440 onto 21st Ave, on the left just beside the Harris Teeter, is a recently remodeled very ancient fire station. A stout black fireman in the classic dress of a t-shirt and the uniform suspendered pants was lopping the tie-off rope having just raised to half-mast the billowing American Flag with a similarly robust, similarly dressed mustached white fireman shading his eyes with his right hand propped upon forehead just beneath the brim of his black helmet.
It must be that day again.
(random googled photo- not taken by me)
Knock, Knock
“Who’s There?”
“9/11”
“9/11 who?”
“But you said you’d never forget!”
(a joke stolen, not created, by me that makes me laugh and laugh)
… the first poem I wrote subsequent to 9/11/2001
Unintentional Nuances
I am a fly upon the wall of the world
I see through multiple hazes
the path being sought
by human interaction
I have no genetic make-up to control
Whilst earthbound I be
shuddering in the cold reality
hoping quiet desperation
is the ticket to life
Maybe the devastation will not find me
perched in my lonely hole
licking lips dry with nervous pursing
breath held in short bursts of fear
My shield remains
only the twitching of my wings
at every person’s movements
Across the corner of my consciousness
Who will be the unanticipated enemy now?
(random googled photo- not taken by me)
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| More Palin junk |
[04 Sep 2008|05:50pm] |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edit: another link~
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_fact_check&printer=1;_ylt=Ai3FbWTWeZ44Sz2dSJOjhAlh24cA
~~~~~~~~~~~
Edit: another email set of blipits from moveon.org ~
Palin recently said that the war in Iraq is "God's task." She's even admitted she hasn't thought about the war much—just last year she was quoted saying, "I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq." 1, 2
Palin has actively sought the support of the fringe Alaska Independence Party. Six months ago, Palin told members of the group—who advocate for a vote on secession from the union—to "keep up the good work" and "wished the party luck on what she called its 'inspiring convention.'" 3
Palin wants to teach creationism in public schools. She hasn't made clear whether she thinks evolution is a fact.4
Palin doesn't believe that humans contribute to global warming. Speaking about climate change, she said, "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being manmade." 5
Palin has close ties to Big Oil. Her inauguration was even sponsored by BP. 6
Palin is extremely anti-choice. She doesn't even support abortion in the case of rape or incest. 7
Palin opposes comprehensive sex-ed in public schools. She's said she will only support abstinence-only approaches. 8
As mayor, Palin tried to ban books from the library. Palin asked the library how she might go about banning books because some had inappropriate language in them—shocking the librarian, Mary Ellen Baker. According to Time, "news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor." 9
She DID support the Bridge to Nowhere (before she opposed it). Palin claimed that she said "thanks, but no thanks" to the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. But in 2006, Palin supported the project repeatedly, saying that Alaska should take advantage of earmarks "while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist." 10
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| Conceptually simply stolen from the Daily Show: |
[04 Sep 2008|11:57am] |
Source: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/
Statement from Sarah and Todd Palin
ARLINGTON, VA -- Today, Sarah and Todd Palin issued the following statement regarding today's Reuters story:
"We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.
"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates."
~~~~~~~~~~
This is why the pregnancy of Bristol Palin is up for grabs in this decision making debate of this election. Gov. Palin does not believe in a woman’s right to choose, is staunchly anti-abortion even in cases of incest or rape.
And yet, based on her own statement, HER daughter got to make a decision to have the baby, but as with so much of the religious right she believes in the ability of government to deny the decision by others.
This is but the tip of the iceberg of why she and McCain need not win.
Admittedly I am not a huge Obama fan, but as with almost every election in which I’ve ever cast my vote, he is (by far) the lesser of two evils.
And if people at my work were not suddenly so smitten with Gov. Palin after hearing her speak last night, causing me undo fear that McCain/Palin may actually win this thing in November, I would find it so very ironic that the republicans continue to lambast Obama for lacking any leadership experience of a state or city since he’s only a senator. Kinda like McCain?
Other blipits from the admittedly extreme left-wing of MoveOn.org’s emails I get daily:
Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:
She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1
Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2
She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3
Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4
She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.5
She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7
This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.
We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here's a sample:
She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK
She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She's a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK
As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK
Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK
She's vehemently anti-choice and doesn't care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK
I think she's far too inexperienced to be in this position. I'm all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn't done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain's part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he'll get our vote by putting "A Woman" in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK
So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She's a global warming denier who shares John McCain's commitment to Big Oil. And she's dramatically inexperienced.
~~~~~~~~
Oh, and a verbal update from my wife who is able to watch more TV news than I, so I’m not sure of her source (probably CNN or MSNBC)~
Apparently Gov. Palin kept her last pregnancy a secret for the first seven months by wearing clandestine clothing and such. Not just a secret from the media or her co-workers, but a secret from her own children. Further, even though tests had revealed she would be having a special-needs downs syndrome child, she did not inform her own children about this until after the baby was born when they first met their new sibling in the hospital. I cannot understand, nor can my wife, how someone supposedly so family-oriented would commit the lie of omission from her own children about being pregnant. And further how much it speaks to her character and her inability to manager her family that she did not have open discussions with her children about what would be unique about a new downs syndrome child in the house, maybe provide them with literature or family round-table discussions of how they would all need play a role in the care of the child, etc.
I think also I can speak further about the aspect of her pregnant teenage daughter because I have raised (am raising) two daughters of my own. We do (my family) talk openly and honestly about birth control and abortion and safe sex, perhaps too much so according to some sources. And we are acutely aware of where our children are and what they are doing and with whom they are spending their time during the pre-18-year-old phases of their lives making it quite unlikely that a pregnancy would have occurred. We dig both directly and indirectly to get some comfort level with the borders and limits they themselves are setting with boy friends and maintain a fairly informed feel for just how far they’ve gone with boys. In fact, so blatant and grown-up/respectful are our discussions with both daughters that they have in their own teenage periods been proactive in telling us, often with shock and questioning concern, about how far their friends have gone (Josh is now 24, so for her we are talking historically, although with Jordan at 17 it is more in today’s world). I have known when most of Jordan’s girl friends have had their first kisses, first oral sex sessions, and lost virginity simply because it never occurs to Jordan not to just share this with her mother and I in the same course of conversation as she would when they got their first car or broke an arm playing soccer.
So I feel free to suggest, given my own experiences, that Gov. Palin is not a good manager nor a good communicator nor a good role model (if she kept this pregnancy of hers secret, how obvious would it have been for her daughter to keep secrets from her too?) and is not a reasonable choice for second-in-command. And this is not a bashing-a-woman-thing because I would (and have) felt the same way about male candidates who’ve done stupid things with their family or dishonesties.
More than anything, though, I simply cannot get passed the idea that she LITERALLY did not know what the job of Vice President would entail. I am so flabbergasted at this that it is difficult for me to believe it to be true. It is in fact an example of why the exact opposite of her “leadership of a state” experience is WRONG for the resume’ of a vice-president. One of the main job functions is leading the senate and who better to understand the procedures and functions of how to manage the senate than a senator? What would an Alaskan governor know about that?
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| You know… |
[22 Aug 2008|11:25am] |
I almost completely abandoned my fervent belief in atheism when it appeared ther must be a god because, in HIS glory, HE saw fit to have the USA girls wearing white bikinis perform their volleyball final victory for gold amid a massive rain storm rendering their wardrobe wet and periodically transparent.
Until, that is, immediately post-game when the taller of the two (a 6’ 4” amazon) made a special point to give a shout out: “Oh, and I want to say Thank You Mr. President for the great job you are doing and all of the support you give.”
My minor generic lust quite became the 180degrees of regurgitory disgust.
God isn’t just dead. He is flaccid.
Amen.
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| Avoid Public Stonings - Know Your Rights! |
[28 Jul 2008|01:19pm] |
I got this information from a LJ stoner group (even if I’m so THC-free as to feel completely out of that bubble) who had copied/pasted it from NORML for her ladies.
It’s so much fun, b.t.w., just to draw out in one’s best club voice, “the ladies….”
( For the prepared paranoid… )
The funny part to me, and I can’t help but wonder if this were not on purpose, is that when I printed off the .pdf file of the “freedom card and put the two sheets back-to-back to cut them out and fold, the words didn’t quite line up so I ended up snipping off parts of the edges of words twice trying to make my own freedom card. Had I been stoned and not just sleepy this morning (and coffee isn’t helping at all), I can see that being an ongoing vision of silliness.
What’s in your wallet?
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| Silver linings |
[25 Jul 2008|01:55pm] |
It is a rainy day. Intermittently. We have not had a rainy day in weeks, not even intermittently. The rare windows I pass in the distance of the hallway, high upon the wall of my boss’s office look out upon vertical streams meandering down concrete, reflective windows, valleyed brick. It is grey, but not sad. Just lazy permeating the air.
Too it is a Friday bookending a week that could easily have subsided on Thursday. I have work to be done, but there is always work to be done. What always only seems to matter are the deadlines and today is not a deadline. And Monday is not a deadline.
I amazed Jennifer on Wednesday, which was not originally a deadline but which she waved her research wand to transform into a deadline. It was time this month for her 5-year application renewal cycle submission of her research grant to NIH studying p63 and p73 Signaling in Cell Growth and Cancer, whatever that may be. Normally this would have been one more lasagna layer in the 7/5/08 deadline mayhem of similar grants from other scientists, but she was chairing a study section reviewing grant applications for NCI and they granted her (as they would anyone in that room) a two week extension. So busy is she with her new role as director of our cancer center that her time is of such a premium any moments she spares in my office (she is the only PI who “schedules” times to meet me; every other PI just drops in upon their own whims). I have said before and am unembarrassed to say again that she is like Jack Johnson, a example of why I cannot believe in a god because it is just too fucking unfair for someone to be so pretty, so talented in so many ways, and able to tan without fear of peeling. She is tall. She is thin. She is athletic. She is stunning and beautiful and blond. She is career-successful, married to a physician, and able to wait to have her first child until she was 40 (and of course a healthy, healthy boy). She is only slightly younger than me and yet I actually never call her Jennifer, but instead refer to her as “Dr.” because I am too enamored to call her by her first name.
Although it surely did not register in her busy brain at all, for years after I’d come to work here (in 2000) I was blushing each time I met her. During one of my first meetings with her, before her incredible fame and fortune had surged, I was in her tiny lab office (maybe it was on this same grant’s earlier application now that I think of it timing wise), she was wearing a sleeveless cotton button-up collared shirt, but open deep from the neckline and (although wearing a bra of course), the gape of the material kept exposing the cleavage bulb of her small, right breast and I could not stop glancing at it amid the general beautific awe of her aura. At some moment of our glancing back and forth at her computer screen during the conversation her eyes caught my eyes fascination with her mammary glands. Of course nothing was said and of course I’m sure although it has occupied my mind as concrete proof of my immaturity with that brain of hers, I would guess that she lost track of the recognition within seconds and probably has had similar situations occur with males much more magnificent than I so consistently over her four decades that it was meaningless to her universe.
She does nothing but express awe with me, by the way. Not just to me, but to others about me as I’ve been told during unrelated conversations over the years. This is not uncommon with many of the PI’s who seem baffled and befuddled with anything in the accounting world of managing funds, projecting budgets, juggling their student and post doc and staffing appointments and various grant supports of the salary and effort, and finagling the system’s and agency’s rules to accomplish what they need with their dollars. I am amazed that they are amazed as smart as these people are (this includes my Chairman, well and other Chairmen and Chairwomen whose salaries and grants I end up indirectly helping to manage). I never feel more intelligent than when I am in her presence. And I never feel more connected when explaining a process or program or function (as was the case with this, her first electronic grant submission cycle) than when we sat side-by-side at my now humble desk as I introduced her to the flow and meaning of information inputs she provided and the outcomes of those nuances on the eventual website forever files of NIH.
Yet, really, I hate meeting with her. Luckily she is always so busy, and her offices three (connected) buildings distant, and she has her own Administrative Officer in the cancer center, and a Manager, and a secretarial pool at her now-disposal, so most anything that would ever need for connection with us is now moot, merely fodder amid her minions and me. I hate meeting with her because I feel I could never, ever have accomplished winning the heart of such a Jack Johnson. Much as she lauds my capability, I can never tell if this is her personality with everyone bubbling in compliments or if I am in some sense unique. Even before her incredible national power and influence (have I mentioned in here that quite recently she was appointed by President bush to a panel of only 6 scientists to head up cancer research initiatives?), even when she was a minor scientist only 8 short years ago, I felt inferior.
But I hate meeting with her even moreso because there is this tiny blipit in my brain that thinks maybe, just maybe, I do fascinate this image of her (she, for me, is more a generic vision of could-have-beens). I hate wondering if I mean anything at all.
We successfully, electronically submitted her grant on Monday pushing right up to the 5pm deadline as these scientists one-and-all tend to do (and have probably done with scientific papers of theirs since high school). Again she expressed by in departing my visitor’s chair having been quite beside me at my keyboard, and subsequently in a late night email, her appreciation and thanks for my smooth pureedge manipulation.
However, on Wednesday morning, as she re-reviewed what we had uploaded, she realized she’d inserted a figure (like a microscopic photograph of something beside an explanatory graph) into the wrong verbiage of her research design method narrative. Because NIH allows 48 hours to resubmit a correction for such an issue I had to throw away every other duty of the afternoon, recreate her entire grant file from scratch, route it electronically through every applicable shared department with collaborators on the grant, and our grants office, and back to me so that she could once again bring down her flash drive with the one corrected narrative .pdf for me to upload into the application and for us to hit “send” to grants.gov.
I felt better about our imaginary unrelationship built upon my inadequacies in intelligence and power and physical attraction during this rush of last moment mayhem she’d initiated Wednesday afternoon. It wasn’t her continuous apologies for what she sees as my quite busy and precious time, nor with her appreciation for my historically popular work relationships that allowed me to easily call and request special favors from folks across campus and in the grants office to drop what they were doing to provide their electronic okay’s. It was not her again late night and subsequent Thursday morning thank you emails for my help. And it was not even her special trips to talk with both my boss and separately my chairman and even with the new school of medicine dean whose ear she had at lunch (which I know because he sent me himself a little thank you email) during which she explained to them all what an absolute treasure I was and how whatever it is they are paying me could not be nearly enough.
I felt better because it happened on Wednesday afternoon she was wearing tan slacks, another sleeveless button-up top, and this time low-heeled, thin-strapped sandals.
Apparently, based on the fluorescent lights in my office glinting, her toenails must have been recently pedicured into the “French manicure” style of a pink base with the long curvature of white crescent at the tips.
And man I hate long toenails. That’s just gross to me.
Yeah, I’d have cancelled our date or filed for divorce once I discovered this about her no matter how intricate the wrinkles within her cranium.
So, like, I’m cool with things now.
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| Yahoo help desk |
[25 Jun 2008|04:49pm] |
For anyone who actually uses yahoo.com as your mail address....Help.
I am trying to send an email and attach a file (as I have done for years) and I'll browse, find the file, and then when I go to hit "Attach File" it tells me "Invalid File Type".
It is doing this whether I try to send a .jpg or a .doc file.
Although I never use the yahoo main page for anything (I bookmark straight into the email module), I did get an email from Yahoo the other day that said they'd remodeled or something (I didn't really read it, just trashed it, and that was kinda funny because my yahoo email account actually pre-sorted their email into a spam-filtered folder - ha!).
Anyway, if anyone else out there is using yahoo, can you check and see if you are able to add attachments to a new email composition or if you know that there's some sort of today-only system problem they are having, it would calm my preturbed nerves.
If you wish to help me test the system, just email me a photo or file to:
bucheau@yahoo.com
I mean, how am I to save photos of people by emailing them to myself if I can't attach files at all?
Help............
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dearmaid's journal
